The Unsealed Knowledge of the Rapture?
“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12:4
“But of that day and hour no one knows…”
Before diving deep into the rapture, I’d just like to address the elephant in the room, which is Jesus’ statement in the Olivet Discourse from Matthew 24:36:
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”
Jesus clearly says to His disciples that no one knows the day or hour of the coming of the Lord, not that no one will ever know the day or the hour. While many may believe this as nitpicking the Word of God, I firmly believe the opposite.
Jesus, in His letter to the church of Sardis in Revelation 3:3, confirms that if the church is watchful, as He commanded us to be several times in His Olivet Discourse, we will know the hour of His appearing (rapture):
“Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.”
Further, Paul confirms several times in his epistles that the day of the coming of the Lord will be known to those who watch by seeking this encouraging knowledge. For example, Paul writes to the church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:
“But as it is written:
‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
Thus, if the Holy Spirit reveals all the deep things of God, of which the rapture is one, and the church had not received the Holy Spirit at the time of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, then surely no man could have known the day or hour at the time of His teaching because no man had received the Spirit, the revealer, yet.
However, after the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2, the church had received the Holy Spirit so we, the church, can expect to know the deep things of God, including the rapture, because we have the Spirit that searches all things!
Lastly, the Old Testament confirms that God reveals all His plans, but sometimes they are not revealed until the appointed time. In Daniel 12:4, God commands:
“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
So, it is scriptural to believe that some knowledge of the end times will not be revealed until the appointed time. But, Amos 3:6-8 assures us that God does nothing revealing it to His servants and disciples first, in His perfect timing:
“If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it? Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”
Then, if there is any doubt in your mind that God would not reveal the timing of the rapture to His servants at the appointed time, Paul uses the language of the rapture occurring at the trumpet of God in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which directly connects it to the scripture from Amos:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
Pre-Tribulation
While I’ve covered why I believe the Bible points to a pre-tribulation before on Substack, I think it’s worth quickly reviewing again because it’s very encouraging for believers who observe the evil and sin that has recently overtaken the world which point to coming tribulation.
The end times, according to Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, are best described by the days of Noah and the days of Lot (Matthew 24:36-44, Luke 17:26-37). As we saw in both stories, the righteous (the families of Noah and Lot) were saved from the wrath of God before it came upon their lands. So also in our day (the end days), those who are made righteous through the blood of Jesus will also be taken out before the final tribulation.
Paul confirms this doctrine that we, the church, are not appointed to God’s wrath in 1 Thessalonians 5:8-11:
“But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”
If you’d like to read more about why I believe the Bible teaches a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, please refer to the following articles, The Eschatological Need-to-Knows and Messiah (September) 2030.
So, if the Church Can Know the Time, then When?
To preface, I am not claiming to know for a fact when the rapture is. I am simply presenting some information that I have learned recently which points to a quickly approaching appointed time for the rapture. Of course, God will act on His own time.
Lastly, the information presented below must be taken in context. If the information below stood alone, without the many signs of the end times in the present day (like a seven-year covenant about to be confirmed with many on the Feast of Trumpets; the Jews regathered in their homeland 75 years ago; the world on the brink of world war, famine, and economic collapse; with the technological capability to create the mark of the beast; etc. all converging 2000 years after the crucifixion), then the information pointing to a rapture in the near future would have no merit. However, the information I hope to clearly present below is fairly compelling in light of the signs and prophecies uniquely fulfilled in our generation.
True Pentecost: the Feast of New Wine
Many believe Pentecost to be the time of the rapture for various reasons, which I do not plan to fully get into. However, the most compelling of which is that Pentecost is clearly an appointed time for the Holy Spirit to move in Jesus’ disciples (the church), as can clearly be seen in Acts 2.
So, if the Holy Spirit (and the church in which He resides) must be moved out of the way (in the rapture) to allow for the rise of the antichrist as Paul suggests in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, then a rapture on Pentecost, which is a Spirit and church-centered appointed time, seems Biblically sound:
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.”
However, what most people miss is the true timing of Pentecost. It is not 50 days after the crucifixion (Passover) as many claim (i.e., on the day of Shavuot, ascension day, the feast of the harvest of the wheat). Instead, it is about 100 days after the crucifixion, on the Feast of New Wine (the feast of the harvest of grapes).
Pentecost coinciding with the Feast of New Wine is made apparent in Acts 2:13-15 when the mocking and scoffing Jews claimed that the disciples, who were just filled with the Holy Spirit, were drunk on “new wine.” Then, Peter retorts that it is only the “third hour,” which is the time when the Jews were allowed to begin drinking the new wine after it was poured out on the altar of God as a sacrifice.
The Ninth of Av: Israel’s Solemn Day
The ninth of Av, or Tish'a b'Av, is a day of mourning for practicing Jews. Throughout the Bible, we find that the Jews experienced many horrific events on this day. Perhaps most notably, it is the very same day when Solomon’s temple (the first) and Ezra and Nehemiah’s temple (the second) were destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans, respectively.
Historically, Jews do not eat meat, drink wine, launder clothing, or plant trees for shade or fragrance, along with many other fasts during the first 10 days of Av out of mourning and remembrance for God’s judgments that came upon their land during this time, including those of the destruction of both temples.
But today, the Jews are beginning to have a very different attitude towards the ninth of Av. This year, instead of mourning, the Temple Institute declares that this time should be one of building!
July 26, 2023: New Wine and the Ninth of Av Converge
Wednesday, July 26, 2023, is the Feast of New Wine and the ninth of Av. This convergence does not occur every year since the Jewish calendar is based on the moon, but what might this mean for this Wednesday/Thursday (since Jewish days start in the evening)?
The Temple
Firstly, I’d like to point out that we, the church, are the temple of God according to the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:9-17:
“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
So, if the temple is “destroyed” this ninth of Av, which is also Pentecost, what might that look like? Well, if the church were raptured (i.e., the temple destroyed), it would surely be a day of chaos and mourning for the Jews (and the rest of the world rebelling against God), fitting right into place with the other ninth of Av judgments, as planes with Christian pilots would fall out of the sky, cars with Christian drivers would drive right off bridges, husbands taken from wives, etc.
Paul, in the previous passage, also uses the language of building literal buildings to point out that no one can lay the foundation of a temple that is not on Jesus Christ. So, as the Jews are planning to transform the ninth of Av from a day of mourning temple destruction into a day of celebrating temple building, might God send them a mighty sign (like the rapture of the church) to show the Jews that those who reside in Jesus are the only temples He respects since His death on the cross?
The Wine
Further, the Jews’ practice of fasting from wine on the ninth of Av also may point to a Pentecost rapture. Pentecost, which, again, occurred on the Feast of New Wine, fulfilled the words of the prophet Joel according to the apostle Peter in Acts 2:16-18:
“But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.’”
It’s important to point out that the Spirit was poured out on the disciples on Pentecost, like wine! So, if the church, which has the Holy Spirit that is like wine, is raptured, might the Jews have their wine taken away like a fast on this day?
Additionally, earlier in Jesus’ ministry, in Mark 2:22, Jesus compares His disciples to wine and wineskins with respect to why they did not observe a fast like the Pharisees (perhaps a fast on the ninth of Av?):
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
Could this explanation also be a prophecy about the glorified bodies, the “new wineskins,” we will receive when the disciples of Jesus, the bride, are joined with the bridegroom, Jesus, at the rapture? Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, seems to hint at this as he is writing about the dead being raised at the rapture:
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”
Lastly, Jesus also may point to a Feast of New Wine rapture at the last supper, in Matthew 26:27, when He makes an important promise to His disciples:
“I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
If Jesus is going to drink wine new with His disciples in heaven and we know that, at the rapture, all those who are in Christ, dead and alive (including the disciples to whom Jesus was speaking at the last supper), will be given new incorruptible bodies (wineskins), then might the rapture occur at the Feast of New Wine, the very same day, Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church (like wine)?